Machine translation system, method and program

ABSTRACT

A translated text creator translates a text in which an unknown word is left in an original language representation without being translated, while known words are translated. Translated text created by the translated text creator is displayed. A link setter sets a link for performing a search for the unknown word in a search field of a selected Internet search engine which corresponds to a field of a subject matter of the original text.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/085,379 filed on Feb. 28, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No.7,318,021 and entitled MACHINE TRANSLATION SYSTEM, METHOD AND PROGRAM,which in turn claims priority from Japanese Patent Application SerialNo. 2001-059031 filed on Mar. 2, 2001.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a machine translation system, methodand program in which a text in a first language is translated into atext in a second language using at least one dictionary. Moreparticularly, the invention relates to a machine translation system,method and program which can appropriately manage a situation where aword not registered in the at least one dictionary is contained in thetext in the first language.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

English-to-Japanese translation software entitled “Internet King ofTranslation” sold in Japan by the assignee of the instant applicationincludes, in addition to a system (basic) dictionary, six dictionariesclassified by the fields of “Sports”, “Arts”, “Politics”, “Business”,“Entertainment” and “Internet”, as well as a user dictionary whosetranslation words may be edited, from time to time, by a user. Thissoftware translates English sentences into Japanese sentences by usingthe translation words in these dictionaries.

Several machine translation systems have been known in which domaindictionaries are automatically switched or changed. For example, themachine translation system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined PatentPublication No. 6-60117 analyzes the sentence structure of an originaltext, checks whether or not translation words in each sentence exist inthe respective domain dictionaries, increments translation word checkcounters corresponding respectively to the dictionaries in whichtranslation words have existed, and sets selection priority of thedomain dictionaries depending on numeric count values of the translationword check counters. Also, in the machine translation system disclosedin Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-21222, a condition fortranslation processing is defined based on document identificationinformation which is determined when a document in a first language isaccessed. In one embodiment thereof, a particular domain or field isdetermined by using an Internet URL as the document identificationinformation, and a domain dictionary corresponding thereto is selected.

In conventional machine translation systems, any word not registered inthe dictionaries (hereinafter referred to as “unknown word”) cannot betranslated. Therefore, a user must consult, for example, a paperdictionary for an appropriate translation word or equivalent for theunknown word, which would result in inefficient and inconvenienttranslation word searching.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a machinetranslation system, method and program which permit a user toefficiently search for a translation word when a word exists that is notregistered in at least one dictionary installed on the machinetranslation system.

It is another object of the invention to provide a machine translationsystem, method and program which can register a translation word in adictionary when a translation word for an unknown word contained in anoriginal text is found.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, there is provided amachine translation system comprising a translated text creator forcreating a translated text in which an original text in a first languageis translated into the translated text in a second language while anunknown word not registered in at least one dictionary is left in thefirst language. A translated text display may be used for displaying thetranslated text created by the translated text creator. A link settermay be used for setting a link for the unknown word in the firstlanguage in the translated text displayed by the display for which aninstruction is provided, such that a search for the unknown word in thefirst language is conducted using the unknown word as a search word in apredetermined Internet search engine based on the first language.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, there isprovided a machine translation method comprising creating a translatedtext in which an original text in a first language is translated intothe translated text in a second language while an unknown word notregistered in at least one dictionary is left in the first language,displaying the translated text and setting a link for the unknown wordin the first language in the translated text being displayed for whichan instruction is provided, such that a search for the unknown word inthe first language is conducted using the unknown word as a search wordin a predetermined Internet search engine based on the first language.

In accordance with yet another embodiment of the invention, there isprovided a machine translation program usable by a computer to cause thecomputer to create a translated text in which an original text in afirst language is translated into the translated text in a secondlanguage while an unknown word not registered in at least one dictionaryis left in the first language, display the translated text and set alink for the unknown word in the first language in the translated textbeing displayed for which an instruction is provided, such that a searchfor the unknown word in the first language is conducted using theunknown word as a search word in a predetermined Internet search enginebased on the first language.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a user utilizing a machine translationsystem according to one embodiment of the invention to translate anEnglish language Web page found on the Internet.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the Internet.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing relationships between subject matter fieldsof domain dictionaries in an English-to-Japanese translation system andsearch fields of two search engines according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a window where an English language Web pageis displayed according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a window displayed when a translationexecution button is clicked in the window of FIG. 4 according to oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a window displayed when an unknown word isclicked in the window of FIG. 5 according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a window displayed when a URL is clicked inthe window of FIG. 6 according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a window displayed when English-to-Japanesetranslation is instructed for English language text in the window ofFIG. 7 according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a window displayed when a hypertext link isclicked in the window of FIG. 8 according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a window and menu displayed when a rightmouse click is performed in the window of FIG. 9 according to oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a window and word editor displayed when“START EDITING TRANSLATION WORD” is selected from the menu of FIG. 10according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a window where a re-translation of theEnglish language Web page of FIG. 4 is displayed according to oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a window where a translation of a differentEnglish language Web page is displayed according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 14 is a high level system diagram illustrating a machinetranslation system according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a translation program accordingto one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a translation word registrationprogram according to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

For a better understanding of the present invention, together with otherand further objects, advantages and capabilities thereof, reference ismade to the following disclosure and appended claims in connection withthe above described drawings.

The first and second languages usable herein may be, for example,English and Japanese, respectively, however the invention is notrestricted to these. Typical Internet search engines in English are, forexample, “Yahoo!” and “AltaVista”. In setting a link for an unknown wordin an original language representation to an Internet search engine, ananchor tag for executing a search by specifying the unknown word as aparameter to a search engine CGI is described, for example.

The unknown word may not only be a word but also a compound word. Thesource of the original text is not restricted to an Internet Web page.It may also be a file stored on a storage device of a personal computeror an input from a character recognition device or a speech recognitiondevice, for example.

When a user instructs that a search for an unknown word in an originallanguage representation be performed by, for example, clicking a mouse,the search for the unknown word is carried out by an Internet searchengine, and information about a translation word for the unknown wordmay be obtained. In this way, a user may efficiently find an appropriatetranslation word for an unknown word not found in dictionaries of themachine translation system without seeking out a translation word in apaper dictionary.

In conventional Internet search engines, searches classified by fieldscan be made in order to perform efficient searches. “Yahoo!”, which isan English language Internet search engine, for example, has searchfields of: “Sports”, “Arts”, “Government”, “Business”, “Entertainment”,“Computers”, “Internet”, etc. as of February 2001. Also, “AltaVista”,another English language Internet search engine has search fields of:“Sports”, “Arts”, “Culture”, “Government”, “Politics”, “Work”, “Money”,“Entertainment”, “Computing”, etc. as of February 2001.

The method for detecting a field relevant to a subject matter of anoriginal text may be not only the one disclosed in Japanese UnexaminedPatent Publication No. 6-60117 or Japanese Unexamined Patent PublicationNo. 10-21222 mentioned above, but also the technique of Japanese PatentApplication No. 11-270212 filed by the same assignee as that of theinstant application. According to the method of the latter application,any compound word used in the original text is sought out, it isdetermined in which domain dictionary the compound word is registeredand the field of the domain dictionary in which the compound word isregistered is set as the subject matter field of the original text. Whenthe names of the fields of the domain dictionaries installed in amachine translation system do not agree with those of the search fieldsof the Internet search engine, the link for an unknown word in anoriginal language representation is set to that search field of theInternet search engine which is closest to containing the field of therelevant domain dictionary.

A search by an Internet search engine for an unknown word is performedin a search field corresponding to a field relevant to a subject matterof the original text containing this unknown word, so that a moreappropriate translation word may be efficiently found.

There are a number of Internet search engines at present. From time totime, a user knows information about which Internet search engine canefficiently find an appropriate translation word, and wishes tooccasionally change the Internet search engine to which a link is set.Therefore, a user is permitted to change the Internet search engine forexecuting a search for an unknown word, through a search engine changer,with the result being that a user may efficiently find an appropriatetranslation word. Furthermore, it is advantageous that a user mayspecify an Internet search engine for a given subject matter field, forexample, Internet search engine “X” for field A, and Internet searchengine “Y” for field B.

There are also a number of Internet search engines at present, which maysearch by field, but search capabilities of these Internet searchengines may vary depending upon search fields. It is accordinglyadvantageous to have, for each field, an Internet search engine with ahigh search capability search for an unknown word in this field. Thus,the efficiency of a translation may be improved by setting a link to anInternet search engine most suited to find a translation word in aparticular field of an unknown word.

In the present invention, a user may efficiently register a translationword for an unknown word in a dictionary. In a translation after aregistration, a word which was unknown before the registration istranslated as a known word. After a translation word registration, auser may instruct re-translation of an original text to obtain atranslated text containing a smaller number of unknown words.

In a machine translation system which selectively uses domaindictionaries depending on a subject matter field of an original text toenhance the quality of a translated text, a field relevant to a subjectmatter of the original text to be translated is detected to select anappropriate domain dictionary (as described in, for example, in JapaneseUnexamined Patent Publication No. 6-60117, Japanese Unexamined PatentPublication No. 10-21222 or Japanese Patent Application No. 1′-270212).Therefore, a field relevant to a subject matter of an original textcontaining an unknown word may be easily detected by checking which ofthe domain dictionaries is currently being used by a machine translationsystem.

A dictionary in which a translation word for each unknown word isregistered in association with a field relevant to a subject matter ofan original text containing that unknown word, is prepared as adictionary in which a user may edit translation words for unknown wordsand unknown compound words. This user editable dictionary may be eithera plurality of user dictionaries prepared for respective fields, or asingle dictionary in which unknown words and translation words areregistered along with information for associating an original ortranslation words with respective fields.

Since an appropriate translation word for a given word may varydepending on a field of the word, translation words for unknown wordsare registered by field, so that translation quality may be enhancedrelative to registering translation words in a dictionary withoutspecifying a field.

When a language is the native language of a user, it may be moreefficient to read a Web page displayed by the unknown word related Webpage display in this native language, rather than trying to read the Webpage in another language with which the user is not familiar.

Further definition of the present invention will now be provided withrespect to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a user 15 utilizing a machine translationsystem to translate an English language Web page found on the Internet.Personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) 10 includes display12, keyboard 13 and mouse 14 which are connected to computer system unit11. English-to-Japanese translation software, for example “Internet Kingof Translation” sold in Japan by the assignee of the instantapplication, is installed on computer system unit 11, along with Webbrowser software. While viewing the display 12, user 15 providesinstruction to PC 10 through the operation of keyboard 13 and mouse 14.The preferred embodiments of the invention will be described hereinafterassuming that user 15 speaks Japanese as a native language.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the Internet 20. PC 10 is connected toInternet 20 through a modem (not shown) or the like. Various serversincluding search engine servers 21, 22 are connected to Internet 20.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing relationships between subject matter fieldsof domain dictionaries in an English-to-Japanese translation systementitled “Internet King of Translation” (hereinafter referred to as“English-to-Japanese translation system concerned”) and search fields oftwo search engines. As shown in the left-hand column in FIG. 3, theEnglish-to-Japanese translation system concerned includesEnglish-to-Japanese dictionaries for the subject matter fields of“Supootsu (Sports)”, “Aato (Arts)”, “Seiji (Politics)”, “Bijinesu(Business)”, “Entaateimento (Entertainment)” and “Intaanetto(Internet)”. The search fields of two English language search enginesare shown in the middle and right-hand columns in FIG. 3. Although thesearch fields of these search engines are independently set, it ispossible for the search fields to correspond to subject matter fields ofthe domain dictionaries in the English-to-Japanese translation systemconcerned. The search fields that correspond to subject matter fields ofthe English-to-Japanese translation system concerned are shown in thesame rows in FIG. 3. The subject matter fields that correspond to thesearch fields in FIG. 3 are as follows: “Supootsu” of theEnglish-to-Japanese translation system concerned corresponds to thesearch field “Sports” of both Search Engine 1 and Search Engine 2,“Aato” corresponds to “Arts” of Search Engine 1 and “Arts+Culture” ofSearch Engine 2, “Seiji” corresponds to “Government” and“Library/Governments & Politics”, “Bijinesu” corresponds to “Business”and “Work+Money”, “Entaateimento” corresponds to “Entertainment” of bothSearch Engines and “Intaanetto Ippan” corresponds to“Computers+Internet” and “Computing”.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a window where an English language Web pageis displayed on display 12. The user 15 can instruct translation of theEnglish language text by clicking, with mouse 14, translation executionbutton 27 at the upper right part of the window. The English languagetext in FIG. 4 is translated by the English-to-Japanese translationsystem concerned, and a window shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on display12, as a foreground window relative to the window of FIG. 4, in whichtranslated Japanese language text, produced by the English-to-Japanesetranslation system concerned, is shown. In the translated text displayedin the window of FIG. 5, hypertext links are underlined to alert user 15to the presence thereof.

In order to enhance the quality of translation, the English-to-Japanesetranslation system concerned translates the original English languagetext such that a field relevant to a subject matter of the original text(shown in the left-hand column in FIG. 3) is detected in accordance witha predetermined algorithm, and that a domain dictionary corresponding tothe detected field is used prior to a system (basic) dictionary in whichgeneral translation words, grammatical rules and examples of uses areregistered. The English-to-Japanese translation system concernedprovides a system dictionary 48 a, domain dictionaries 48 b and a userdictionary 48 c as will be explained below with reference to FIG. 14.The English-to-Japanese translation system concerned starts thetranslation of the original text with dictionary usage priority set inthe order of user dictionary 48 c, system dictionary 48 a and domaindictionaries 48 b, as no field has been specified at the start of thetranslation. A method for detecting a field relevant to a subject matterof a range of text to be translated in the original text is, forexample, detecting compound words. “Hiro Itoh” in the original text inFIG. 4 is assumed to be a world-famous golf player. TheEnglish-to-Japanese translation system concerned detects “Hiro Itoh” asa compound word in the original English language text, searches thedomain dictionaries to determine in which dictionary the compound wordis registered and finds that the compound word is registered in thesports domain dictionary. The English-to-Japanese translation systemconcerned, having determined that sports is the subject matter field ofthe original text, alters the usage priority of the domain dictionariesso as to use words registered in the sports domain dictionary prior tousing words registered in the system dictionary, and translates theoriginal English language text shown in FIG. 4 into a translatedJapanese language text. In the translated Japanese language text shownin FIG. 5, it is assumed that unknown words 28 a, 28 b and 28 c are notregistered in the sports domain dictionary, or any of the otherdictionaries, in the English-to-Japanese translation system concerned atthe time of initial translation. Consequently, unknown words 28 a, 28 band 28 c are displayed in the window of FIG. 5 in the original Englishlanguage representations without being translated. The user 15 knows, byseeing the original language representations in the window of FIG. 5,that the unknown words 28 a, 28 b and 28 c are not registered in thedictionaries of the English-to-Japanese translation system concerned.However, a hypertext link is set for each of the unknown words 28 a, 28b and 28 c. In these links, a search field of a predetermined Internetsearch engine is associated with the field of the domain dictionary usedfor translating the original text, for example, in accordance with thetable shown in FIG. 3. The unknown words in the translated text areunderlined to indicate that a link has been set for each of the unknownwords, alerting user 15 to the presence of these links. As explainedabove, an anchor tag for executing a search by specifying the unknownword as a parameter to a search engine CGI is defined for the respectivelinks of the unknown words. For example, for unknown word 28 b, “TomoMiyahira”, the respective link is set to the following anchor tag: <Ahref=“http://search.000.com/bin/search?p=%22Tomo%20Miyahira%22&r=Sports”>TomoMiyahira</A>

The Internet search engine in a link for an unknown word may bespecified to be, for example, Search Engine 1 or Search Engine 2 shownin FIG. 3, and may not be changed once a link is set, irrespective ofthe search field; however a different search engine may be specified foreach search field when a link is initially set. In the translated textdisplayed in the window of FIG. 5, three unknown words are present, anduser 15 may click the unknown words in the original languagerepresentation in any order desired. When an unknown word is clicked, asearch is conducted using the unknown word as a search word in thesearch field of the Internet search engine to which the unknown word islinked, and a search result list is displayed. Assuming that user 15 hasclicked unknown word 28 b, “Tomo Miyahira”, in the window of FIG. 5, asearch result list window shown in FIG. 6 is displayed as a foregroundwindow on display 12 (FIG. 1). Uniform Resource Locators (hereinafterreferred to as “URLs”) of a plurality of Web pages relevant to thesearch word are listed and displayed in descending order of relevancy.The search result list is displayed in the window of FIG. 6. The user 15may click any of the URLs in the window of FIG. 6; however forillustrative purposes it is assumed that the top ranked URL (URL number1) has been clicked. Accordingly, a Web page accessed by this URL isdisplayed as a foreground window on display 12, and is shown in FIG. 7.The Web page shown in FIG. 7 provides an explanation about “TomoMiyahira” in English. The resulting text is displayed in the window ofFIG. 7.

In each of the windows shown in FIG. 4 through FIG. 7, translationexecution button 27 is shown in the icon bar area of the window. Englishlanguage text displayed in a window is translated into a Japaneselanguage text when user 15 instructs translation by theEnglish-to-Japanese translation system concerned by clicking translationexecution button 27. When user 15 clicks translation execution button27, the English language text displayed in the window of FIG. 7 istranslated and a window of resulting translated Japanese language textshown in FIG. 8 is displayed as a foreground window on display 12. Since“Tomo Miyahira” is not registered in the sports domain dictionary in theEnglish-to-Japanese translation system concerned, this unknown wordremains in the original language representation in the Japanese languagetext in the window of FIG. 8. The user 15 knows, from the Japaneselanguage text in the window of FIG. 8, that “Tomo Miyahira” is the nameof a Japanese person, and that a URL for this name exists. The URL inthe translated text is underlined to alert user 15 that the URL is ahyperlinked URL 30. When user 15 clicks the hyperlinked URL 30, a Webpage shown in FIG. 9 is displayed as a foreground window on display 12.The Web page displayed in the window of FIG. 9 is a Japanese languageWeb page and is accessed by clicking URL 30 shown in FIG. 8.

The user 15 knows, from the Web page displayed in the window of FIG. 9,that “Tomo Miyahira” is a person named “Miyahira Tomohiro” in theJapanese language, and determines that the translation word for “TomoMiyahira” is “Miyahira Tomohiro”. The user 15 then selects the characterstring “Miyahira Tomohiro” in the window of FIG. 9 and clicks the rightbutton of mouse 14 (FIG. 1). This right click causes a pop-up menu 32 tobe displayed as shown in FIG. 10. In pop-up menu 32, it is possible toselect one of the following menu items: “Start editing translationword”, “Cut”, “Copy”, “Paste”, “Select All” and “Print”. In thiscontext, however, “Cut” and “Paste” cannot be selected as the operationsspecified by these menu items cannot currently be performed in thewindow of FIG. 9. The menu items which cannot be selected are grayed outin the actual pop-up menu 32, and are shown in italics for the sake ofclarity in FIG. 10. The user 15 selects “Start editing translation word”in pop-up menu 32 of FIG. 10. The pop-up menu 32 then disappears, and atranslation word editing box 33, which allows efficient translation wordediting, is displayed as shown in FIG. 11.

In the translation word editing box 33 shown in FIG. 11, a categorydictionary name input field 34, an original word input field 35 and atranslation word input field 36 are provided as editing box components,and an OK button 37 a and a cancel button 37 b are provided asinstruction components. Since the English-to-Japanese translation systemconcerned began using the sports domain dictionary when the translatedtext shown in FIG. 5 was created, the sports dictionary is automaticallyplaced in category dictionary name input field 34. Since user 15 hadselected the word “Tomo Miyahira” in the window of FIG. 5, this word isautomatically placed in original word input field 35. Also, thecharacter string “Miyahira Tomohiro” is automatically placed intranslation word input field 36 as user 15 selected this characterstring in the window of FIG. 9. The italic type of the characters incategory dictionary name input field 34, original word input field 35and translation word input field 36 signifies that these characters havenot been typed by user 15, but rather that these characters have beenautomatically placed there by the English-to-Japanese translation systemconcerned. These automatically placed characters are grayed out in theactual translation word editing box 33, and are shown in italic type forthe sake of distinction in FIG. 11.

As will be explained below with reference to FIG. 14, theEnglish-to-Japanese translation system concerned provides dictionaries48 including a system (basic) dictionary 48 a, domain dictionaries 48 band a user dictionary 48 c. The contents of system dictionary 48 a anddomain dictionaries 48 b may not be altered by user 15. Only thecontents of user dictionary 48 c may be edited by user 15. It should benoted that, even though “sports dictionary” has been placed in categorydictionary name input field 34, the translation word placed intranslation word input field 36 will be registered in user dictionary 48c, not in the sports dictionary included in domain dictionaries 48 b.User dictionary 48 c may be used for registering words not found inother dictionaries and corresponding translation words as well asinformation about a relationship or association between a translationword and a corresponding subject matter field.

User 15 may perform editing in translation word editing box 33, and whenfinished, user 15 left-clicks OK button 37 a, and the contents oftranslation word editing box 33 are registered in user dictionary 48 c.Once these contents have been registered, the English-to-Japanesetranslation system concerned re-translates either the original Englishlanguage text displayed in the window of FIG. 4, or only unknown word 28b, “Tomo Miyahira”, in the window of FIG. 5, closes the window of FIG. 6and a window of resulting re-translated Japanese language text shown inFIG. 12 is displayed as a foreground window on display 12. Translationword registration for “Tomo Miyahira” causes unknown word 28 b in thetranslated text displayed in the window of FIG. 5 to be replaced in there-translated text displayed in the window of FIG. 12 by known word 38,“Miyahira Tomohiro”. The user 15 also searches for appropriatetranslation words for unknown words 28 a and 28 c displayed in thewindow of FIG. 5, registers these translation words in user dictionary48 c using a similar process to that described above for unknown word 28b and instructs re-translation to successively reduce the quantity ofunknown words.

FIG. 13 shows a window of translated Japanese language text when user 15has instructed the English-to-Japanese translation system concerned totranslate a different English language Web page than that which is shownin FIG. 4. The English-to-Japanese translation system concerned hasdetected the field of business as being relevant to the subject matterof the text of this Web page, which is different than the field ofsports. “Tomo Miyahira” is unknown with respect to the field of businessin user dictionary 48 c, and is therefore displayed as unknown word 39in the window of FIG. 13. In a manner similar to the process describedabove for unknown word 28 b, user 15 clicks unknown word 39 to conduct asearch by field for an appropriate translation word for “Tomo Miyahira”,and registers the translation word for “Tomo Miyahira” in userdictionary 48 c in association with the field of business. In the fieldof business, a person named “Tomo Miyahira” may be “Miyahira Tomokazu”rather than “Miyahira Tomohiro” as in the field of sports.

FIG. 14, as stated above, is a high level system diagram illustrating amachine translation system 40. Translation instructor 41 issues aninstruction for translation from English to Japanese to translated textcreator 45 in response to an instruction from user 15 or automaticallyin a predetermined manner. Original text input system 42 may be anysystem for inputting an original English language text into translatedtext creator 45, such as keyboard 13, a character recognition device ora speech recognition device as well as a Web page. The translated textcreator 45 translates an original text in a first language, in oneexample English, into a translated text in a second language, in oneexample Japanese, or in other words, creates a translated text by usingfield detector 46 and dictionaries 48. The dictionaries 48 comprise asystem dictionary 48 a, a plurality of domain dictionaries 48 b and atleast one user dictionary 48 c. The system dictionary 48 a and domaindictionaries 48 b cannot be altered, for example by rewriting and/orsupplementing, by user 15; however user dictionary 48 c may be edited byuser 15. The registered contents of system dictionary 48 a, domaindictionaries 48 b and user dictionary 48 c comprise translation words,grammatical rules, phrases and other information. Upon receiving atranslation instruction from translation instructor 41, translated textcreator 45 sends field detector 46 an original text from original textinput system 42, instructs field detector 46 to detect a field relevantto a subject matter of the original text and receives the result of thedetection. A subject matter field detected by field detector 46corresponds to a field of one of the domain dictionaries 48 b describedbelow. Subsequently, translated text creator 45 selects one of domaindictionaries 48 b having a field that corresponds to the subject matterfield detected by field detector 46 for use in translation processing,and sets the usage priority level of the selected one of domaindictionaries 48 b, higher than that of system dictionary 48 a. The usagepriority of dictionaries 48 which translated text creator 45 uses fortranslation processing is, from highest to lowest priority: userdictionary 48 c, the selected one of domain dictionaries 48 b and systemdictionary 48 a. Words, compound words, grammatical rules and phrases inthe original text are first collated with the dictionary having thehighest priority level. If a corresponding item is found in thisdictionary, the item is used, but if no corresponding item is found, thedictionary used for collation is switched to one of the next lowerpriority level. If a translation word for a word or compound word in theoriginal text is not found in user dictionary 48 c, the selected one ofdomain dictionaries 48 b or system dictionary 48 a, translated textcreator 45 creates the translated text without translating that word orcompound word (hereinafter referred to as “unknown word”). Translatedtext display 51 displays the translated text in Japanese created bytranslated text creator 45, on display 12. In the displayed, translatedtext, the unknown word which has not been translated by translated textcreator 45 remains in an original language representation. Link setter52 receives information about the field of the selected one of domaindictionaries 48 b, or the subject matter field detected by fielddetector 46, from translated text creator 45. Link setter 52 then sets alink for performing a search in a search field relating to a selectedInternet search engine and corresponding to a field relevant to asubject matter of the unknown word in the translated text displayed bytranslated text display 51. The Internet search engine to which the linkis set may be specified without regard to the field relevant to asubject matter of the unknown word. However, the link may also be set toa different Internet search engine depending on the field relevant to asubject matter of the unknown word. Translation word registrar 53registers, in user dictionary 48 c, the contents of translation wordediting box 33 shown in FIG. 11 comprising contents of categorydictionary name input field 34, original word input field 35 andtranslation word input field 36, as well as a relationship between thetranslation word and a field relevant to a subject matter thereof. Aftertranslation word registrar 53 has completed registering the translationword in user dictionary 48 c, and user 15 again clicks translationexecution button 27 shown in the English language text window of FIG. 4,a window of re-translated Japanese language text containing the newlyregistered translation word is displayed as a foreground window ondisplay 12 as shown, for example, in the window of FIG. 12.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a translation program of theinvention. At step S60, it is determined whether there is an instructionfor translation from user 15. The program proceeds to step S61 if thedecision is “YES”, while the program is ended if “NO”. At step S61, afield relevant to a subject matter of the original text to be translatedis detected by field detector 46 (shown in FIG. 14). At step S62, domaindictionary changing is performed, if necessary, to select one of domaindictionaries 48 b having a field which corresponds to the field detectedat step S61. After this changing, the selected one of domaindictionaries 48 b has a priority level for collation of the originaltext set higher than that of system dictionary 48 a, and the prioritylevel of dictionaries 48 becomes, from highest to lowest priority level:user dictionary 48 c, the selected one of domain dictionaries 48 b andsystem dictionary 48 a. At step S63, the original text is translatedusing dictionaries 48 to create a translated text. At step S64, a linkis set for an unknown word for which a translation word has not beenfound, if such an unknown word is contained in the original text. Thelink that is set points to a particular search field of a selectedInternet search engine which corresponds to the field detected at stepS61. At step S65, the translated text in which the link has been set forthe unknown word is displayed on display 12.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a translation word registrationprogram of the invention. At step S70, it is determined whether “STARTEDITING TRANSLATION WORD” has been selected in pop-up menu 32 shown inFIG. 10, that is, whether a request for registering a translation wordhas been issued. The program proceeds to step S71 if the decision is“YES”, while it is ended if “NO”. At step S71, the field of the selectedone of domain dictionaries 48 b is detected. This field corresponds to afield which is relevant to a subject matter of the original text lasttranslated by machine translation system 40. At step S72, translationword editing box 33 (shown in FIG. 11) is displayed on display 12. Theuser 15 may perform editing for the unknown word in translation wordediting box 33. At step S73, it is determined whether translation wordediting by user 15 has ended, that is, whether user 15 has clicked OKbutton 37 a in translation word editing box 33. If the determination is“YES”, the program proceeds to step S74. At step S74, the translationword is registered in user dictionary 48 c in association with the fielddetected at step S71.

1. A computer program product comprising a computer useable mediumincluding a computer readable program, wherein the computer readableprogram when executed on a computer causes the computer to: create atranslated text in which an original text in a first language istranslated into said translated text in a second language while anunknown word not registered in at least one dictionary is left in saidfirst language; display said translated text; and set a link for saidunknown word in said first language in said translated text displayed bysaid displaying of said translated text for which an instruction isprovided, such that a search for said unknown word in said firstlanguage is conducted using said unknown word as a search word in apredetermined Internet search engine based on said first language. 2.The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readableprogram when executed on a computer causes the computer to detect afield relevant to a subject matter of said original text, wherein saidsetting of said link sets said link for said unknown word in said firstlanguage so as to search for said unknown word in one of a plurality ofsearch fields of said Internet search engine which corresponds to saidfield detected by said detecting of said field.
 3. The computer programproduct of claim 2, wherein said setting of said link stores settingsabout said Internet search engine which are to be used for searching forsaid unknown word for each of said fields detected by said detecting ofsaid field.
 4. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein thecomputer readable program when executed on a computer causes thecomputer to: display a search result list of Web pages relevant to saidunknown word as found by said Internet search engine in response to saidinstruction given by a user for executing said search for said unknownword for which said link has been set by said setting of said link;display an unknown word related Web page which has been selected fromsaid search result list by said user; and generate a translation wordregistration screen which allows said user to edit and register atranslation word for said unknown word, and registering said translationword in said at least one dictionary, in association with said fieldrelevant to said subject matter of said original text which containssaid unknown word.
 5. The computer program product of claim 1, whereinthe computer readable program when executed on a computer causes thecomputer to change said Internet search engine to which said link is setby said setting of said link.
 6. The computer program product of claim1, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computercauses the computer to: display a search result list of Web pagesrelevant to said unknown word as found by said Internet search engine inresponse to said instruction given by a user for executing said searchfor said unknown word for which said link has been set by said settingof said link; display an unknown word related Web page which has beenselected from said search result list by said user; and generate atranslation word registration screen which allows said user to edit andregister a translation word for said unknown word, and registering saidtranslation word for said unknown word in said at least one dictionary.7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the computerreadable program when executed on a computer causes the computer totranslate said unknown word related Web page displayed by saiddisplaying of said unknown word related Web page, into said secondlanguage.
 8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein thecomputer readable program when executed on a computer causes thecomputer to instruct re-translation of said original text containingsaid unknown word relevant to said translation word after saidtranslation word has been registered by said registering of saidtranslation word.
 9. A computer program product comprising a computeruseable medium including computer useable program code for translatingtext, said computer program product comprising: computer useable programcode for creating a translated text in which an original text in a firstlanguage is translated into said translated text in a second languagewhile an unknown word not registered in at least one dictionary is leftin said first language; computer useable program code for displayingsaid translated text; and computer useable program code for setting alink for said unknown word in said first language in said translatedtext displayed by said displaying of said translated text for which aninstruction is provided, such that a search for said unknown word insaid first language is conducted using said unknown word as a searchword in a predetermined Internet search engine based on said firstlanguage.
 10. The computer program product of claim 9, furthercomprising computer useable program code for detecting a field relevantto a subject matter of said original text, wherein said setting of saidlink sets said link for said unknown word in said first language so asto search for said unknown word in one of a plurality of search fieldsof said Internet search engine which corresponds to said field detectedby said detecting of said field.
 11. The computer program product ofclaim 10, further comprising: computer useable program code fordisplaying a search result list of Web pages relevant to said unknownword as found by said Internet search engine in response to saidinstruction given by a user for executing said search for said unknownword for which said link has been set by said setting of said link;computer useable program code for displaying an unknown word related Webpage which has been selected from said search result list by said user;and computer useable program code for generating a translation wordregistration screen which allows said user to edit and register atranslation word for said unknown word, and registering said translationword in said at least one dictionary, in association with said fieldrelevant to said subject matter of said original text which containssaid unknown word.
 12. The computer program product of claim 9, whereinsaid setting of said link stores settings about said Internet searchengine which are to be used for searching for said unknown word for eachof said fields detected by said detecting of said field.
 13. Thecomputer program product of claim 9, further comprising computer useableprogram code for changing said Internet search engine to which said linkis set by said setting of said link.
 14. The computer program product ofclaim 9, further comprising: computer useable program code fordisplaying a search result list of Web pages relevant to said unknownword as found by said Internet search engine in response to saidinstruction given by a user for executing said search for said unknownword for which said link has been set by said setting of said link;computer useable program code for displaying an unknown word related Webpage which has been selected from said search result list by said user;and computer useable program code for generating a translation wordregistration screen which allows said user to edit and register atranslation word for said unknown word, and registering said translationword for said unknown word in said at least one dictionary.
 15. Thecomputer program product of claim 14, further comprising computeruseable program code for translating said unknown word related Web pagedisplayed by said displaying of said unknown word related Web page, intosaid second language.
 16. The computer program product of claim 14,further comprising computer useable program code for instructingre-translation of said original text containing said unknown wordrelevant to said translation word after said translation word has beenregistered by said registering of said translation word.